My first position is that the defendant had the same
right to vote as any other citizen who voted at that
election.

Before proceeding to the discussion of the purely
legal question, I desire, as already intimated, to
pay some attention to the propriety and justice of
the rule which I claim to have been established by
the Constitution.

Miss Anthony, and those united with her in demanding
the right of suffrage, claim, and with a strong appearance
of justice, that upon the principles upon which our
government is founded, and which lie at the basis
of all just government, every citizen has a right to
take part, upon equal terms with every other citizen,
in the formation and administration of government.
This claim on the part of the female sex presents
a question the magnitude of which is not well appreciated
by the writers and speakers who treat it with ridicule.
Those engaged in the movement are able, sincere and
earnest women, and they will not be silenced by such
ridicule, nor even by the villainous caricatures of
Nast. On the contrary, they justly place all those
things to the account of the wrongs which they think
their sex has suffered. They believe, with an
intensity of feeling which men who have not associated
with them have not yet learned, that their sex has
not had, and has not now, its just and true position
in the organization of government and society.
They may be wrong in their position, but they will
not be content until their arguments are fairly, truthfully
and candidly answered.

In the most celebrated document which has been put
forth on this side of the Atlantic, our ancestors
declared that “governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed.”

Blackstone says, “The lawfulness of punishing
such criminals (i.e., persons offending merely against
the laws of society) is founded upon this principle:
that the law by which they suffer was made by their
own consent; it is a part of the original contract
into which they entered when first they engaged in
society; it was calculated for and has long contributed
to their own security.”

Quotations, to an unlimited extent, containing similar
doctrines from eminent writers, both English and American,
on government, from the time of John Locke to the
present day, might be made. Without adopting this
doctrine which bases the rightfulness of government
upon the consent of the governed, I claim that there
is implied in it the narrower and unassailable principle
that all citizens of a State, who are bound by its
laws, are entitled to an equal voice in the making
and execution of such laws. The doctrine is well
stated by Godwin in his treatise on Political Justice.
He says: “The first and most important principle
that can be imagined relative to the form and structure
of government, seems to be this: that as government
is a transaction in the name and for the benefit of
the whole, every member of the community ought to have
some share in its administration.”